Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca
It ain’t rocket science, according to Peter Dyakowski. More like basic, high school physics.
“Everyone has to do a little bit more,” says the Hamilton Ticats’ cerebral offensive lineman. “Be a little bit more focused. There’s a little less margin for error.”
If Dyakowski’s mood is any indication, the Ticats aren’t in a tizzy over the loss of quarterback Zach Collaros for the balance of the season. Not even close. As the top team in the East gets prepared to attempt to keep their season’s momentum going without their talented offensive leader, Dyakowski is upbeat, confident and, as always, thoughtful.
“We remain a very good football team.” he says.
That they do.
It’s not that the loss of the man who is inarguably the best and most valuable player on this edition of the team won’t hurt. It’s just that Dyakowski feels strongly – as do his teammates, he says – that the Ticats’ depth of talent can overcome the shortfall created by Collaros’ absence.
“We’ve still got our defence, just like we did the week before,” he points out. “We still have our weapons on special teams, just like we did the week before. We still have all of the receivers that we had the week before. We still have our line, our running backs, our coaches. So, we’re very much still the Tiger-Cats.”
What will it take for the Ticats to pick up the slack? Not much, argues Dyakowski, as long as each and every player on the roster stretches themself just a little bit more.
“In our situation, everybody has to step up,” he says. “I don’t think anyone has to try to really press to do anything outside of themselves but we have to take it seriously.”
That is a notion that, Dyakowski believes, has been embraced by each member of the Ticats in an almost organic fashion. In other words, without the drama of a “win one for The Gipper” speech coming from anyone.
Popular culture and the romanticism of movies and television have many of us believing that this kind of adversity demands a moment of truth, and of histrionics. A “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” Coach Taylor kind of moment. Hasn’t been one for the Ticats, however. Not from Coach Kent Austin, not from anybody else in the locker room, according to Dyakowski. Doesn’t mean there won’t be one just before Friday night’s tilt with the Calgary Stampeders but so far, Dyakowski says, the Ticats haven’t seen it as necessary.
“There hasn’t been a big team meeting,” he says, with a tone that suggests the idea of it never even saw dawn. “We haven’t had to have that. We’ve got a lot of very responsible, very trustworthy guys who have all felt the same calling, which is ‘step up and do your part as best as you can do it and we’re gonna be just as good.’ We just have a little bit less margin for error.”
“I think what I’ve said is on everybody’s minds.”
That, and their fallen quarterback. Dyakowski is adamant that the prevailing feeling in the Hamilton room is not one of self pity over the situation in which they find themselves, but one of sympathy for Collaros.
“When you see a player playing that well – and I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say he was on his way to being a shoo-in for MOP – it’s tremendously frustrating for everybody. You can’t help but feel bad for one of your very closest friends. That’s how we are as a team. We have a very strong bond with all of each other.”
If you’re getting the feeling that Dyakowski is underplaying the incredible impact Collaros has had on the Ticats on the field, it’s not that way at all. More that he has confidence in the rest of the team to rally to the cause and that includes a faith he has placed in Collaros’ understudy, Jeff Mathews.
In a perfect world, Mathews would be more than just an effective game manager for the Ticats. But, if they get just that much out of him, there’s no reason to think the team can’t continue on its winning ways, the way the Montreal Alouettes rode a stout defence and a merely efficient offence to a hot finish last season. In a year that has seen the emergence of so many young pivots so far, why wouldn’t we leave room for the possibility that Mathews could join the parade?
“This guy’s got a rocket arm,” gushes Dyakowski, saying that he could hear the football hit receivers even while he was still engaged in blocking for Mathews during his last game. “He’s got some unique skills. There’s a reason he’s a professional football player. I don’t think anyone should forget that. That this guy made the team for a reason.”
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